If you want to make Neapolitan-style pizza in Charlottesville and you’re not from Naples, being from Lampo is probably the next best thing.
But let’s back up. Aaron Hill’s pizza-making days started well before he served as the Belmont restaurant’s sous chef from 2016 to 2019. His first serious dough-flinging foray was at another member of the city’s Mount Pizzamore: Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. Over two separate stints, Hill spent more than five years helping turn out the Doc’s Wonka-like creations, which couldn’t sit further from the strictures of Neapolitan style and its D.O.C. mandates.
“A lot of my style is definitely a blend,” Hill says. “I don’t go out of my way to do anything…by the rules. I think it’s more important to follow your own taste. There is no real point to [D.O.C. certification]. I see it as a racket.”
It’s that perspective that’s led to Slice Versa, Hill’s seven-month-old mobile wood fired pizza kitchen. From his custom trailer-slash-oven, he’s been turning out zingy Neapolitan-ish and Sicilian-style ’zas since spring 2021 and drawing fans around the county at breweries, wineries, farmers’ markets, and beyond.
To top his sourdough-based pies, Hill seeks out local cheeses, cured meats, and vegetables.
“We’re not in Italy, and I’m not going to be importing every ingredient I have,” Hill says. “I can get black walnut oil or hickory oil or olive oil that is just amazing stuff—all from Virginia. I want to represent this climate and our food system and be sustainable.”
Lending Slice Versa another pizza-loving perspective is co-owner Emma Luster. Hill and Luster met and married in 2019, drawn together in no small part by a certain round, mozzarella-topped delicacy. Luster kept a “pizza diary,” both dreamed of running a food truck, and as they probably say in Sicily, the rest was storia.
Hill’s favorite Slice Versa pizza so far has been a black walnut number he hopes to bring back to the menu soon. For those clinging to tradition, he’s also got the Cheesetown—four cheeses, garlic, chili flake, wild oregano, and EVOO over a crushed tomato base—and bestselling margherita.
“Wherever you are, everyone eats different—that’s been one of the coolest parts of this,” Hill says. “Kind of the point is to break the rules and have more options for more people.”